With a stunning Bride, a dashing groom, and one seriously gorgeous wedding planned to perfection by One Fine Day Events, it goes without saying that this gallery is just beyond. Captured beautifully by Shane Welch Photography every picture perfect moment of this couples’ beautiful Chicago day is waiting for you right here. And on top of it all, Loudbyte Cinematography made sure we could see it all play out on film. And trust me, you don’t want to miss it.
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I would describe our wedding style as modern traditional. While we didn’t have a “head table”, a bridal party entrance, or bouquet toss, and sent electronic save the dates, we still wanted to have our ceremony at a catholic church.
The ceremony took place at St. James Chapel, part of Holy Name Cathedral. It’s a 90 year old chapel in the middle of Rush Street and is rich with history, and more noticeably its beauty! Our ‘grand exit’ was complete with ribbon bells to preserve the grounds (ribbon bells from esty-LilyAmongThornsBride).
Post ceremony, the city theme was carried through our photo session. Our photographer, Shane Welch, with Shane Welch photography, knew we wanted a unique place that would allow for city views and chose a more remote beach suiting our style located at 31st street. It was rustic, chic, and had perfect views of the skyline and lake. It was very windy that day but it wouldn’t have been a true Chicago wedding without it!
We never thought we would have held our reception at a hotel, but when we saw the ballroom at the Wyndam Grand Chicago Riverfront hotel (formerly Hotel 71), we knew we had to have our reception there. The primary reason we chose this venue was for the panoramic 39th floor views overlooking Chicago landmarks such as, the Wrigley Building, John Hancock tower, and the Museum of Science and industry, to name a few. As an added bonus, the venue had some character; it was Bruce Wayne’s penthouse in the film The Dark Knight. The capacity of 130 guests made it the right size venue for us. We leveraged the beautiful city backdrop as our wedding ‘décor’ and enhanced it with floating candles and minimalistic floral designs from Stemline Creative.
A lot of credit for the day of details goes to many talented Etsy designers; Candycrush events for the sequin table cloths, Tangedesign, for the white sequin bride and groom Chivari chair covers, SimpleandStunning2 for the unique wedding programs, and Birdhouse stationary which designed the “city” vision I had for my wedding invites, which of course captured the city skyline. I was able to print and assemble at home to reduce the costs.
I also put my own creative touches on the wedding. Little details such as, designing and printing the place-cards and personalized water bottle labels (which I proudly taped to each water bottle), as well as, a Fuji film photo guest book station. Alliance Bakery also merged 3 cake design ideas I had in mind for a simple but modern cake which ended up tasting just as good as it looked! A lot of time was spent on some of the little details and the day of coordinators from One Fine Day events executed them better than I could have myself!
Additionally, I was also a beta tester for Appycouple, a wedding website and phone app that allowed us to e-mail our save the dates and have our guests rsvp online which saved us both time and money. Some guests were a little slow to catch on, but it was useful for us to track the responses and number of invites sent. The app also included all of the wedding details including integrated maps & directions for convenience.
All and all, it was one spectacular day and I can honestly say if I had the chance to do it again, I wouldn’t change a thing about my wedding! 5 months after the wedding I got to virtually re-live it all over again with a beautiful film that Loudbyte Cinematography put together for me. It was truly a day we will cherish forever and I’m so happy I have beautiful film and photos to remember it by!
Photography: Shane Welch Photography | Cinematography: Loudbyte | Event Planning: One Fine Day | Floral Design: Stemline Creative | Ceremony Venue: St. James Quigley Chapel | Reception: Wyndham Grand Chicago Riverfront | MakeUp: Kristen Repta | Hair: Juan Jose Herrera | DJ: White Label DJs | Photography - Assistance: Samuel Gove | Rentals: Chivari Chairs